Super Bowl shuffle

Thoughts and observations from tonight's Super Bowl XLIII telecast...

For all of the reminders about getting 3D glasses at the grocery for best appreciating two of tonight's ads and tomorrow's episode of Chuck, I never saw any of the red and blue specs or a display.

Despite being eight years younger, John Elway sure looked a lot older than Lynn Swann.

It's a sign of the times that a song (U2's new single) appears in an advertisment (an NFL spot) almost a month before the album is in stores.

Madison Avenue has tried to convince us that the ads are just as important as the game, but if that were true--and I don't think it is--they sure laid an egg with the mostly uninspired bunch that aired tonight.

I thought the blatant product placement was kind of questionable in last night's Saturday Night Live MacGruber sketch, so I really don't know what to think now that I see that it actually is an ad.

Is Toyota aware that transmission isn't the first thing that comes to mind when some of us hear "tranny"? Do gearheads call it that?

Instant replay appeared to get the calls correct--I'd quibble with the fumble call on Arizona's final possession--but talk about draining the urgency out of what happens on the field. All the calls upstairs kills the excitement of the moment.

I really didn't want the Steelers to win, but at least the game was in question down to the final seconds. That's two Super Bowls in a row that have had pretty good finishes, which isn't typical for the championship.

The host network places such importance on the show they air after the Super Bowl, but it might help if the thing started on time or at a reasonable hour in the Eastern time zone. Tonight's actually started close to on time but still didn't begin until after 10:30 p.m.